Diet and exercise can not be separated when you aim for a long term healthy weight loss. There are weight loss programs that don’t including exercise in the process such as Grapefruit Diet or Cabbage Soup Diet, but usually those programs only aim for a fast short term weight loss. If you do have planned to start a long term healthy weight loss program, which obviously will include exercise, there are a few things you should know beforehand:
1. Sweating is not an indicator; there are people who use sweat to measure their exercise; “if you are sweating then you already have a good exercise”. You shouldn’t use this indicator, sweating is only your body’s way to cooling itself and it doesn’t mean that you have burned enough calories. Stick to your target or schedule when exercising.
2. Don’t skip your weight training; cardiovascular exercise combined with weight training is considered the best method to burn calories. Indeed, cardiovascular exercise such as jogging or biking can burn calories faster, but there is benefit in gaining muscle through weight training since a person with more muscle will burn more calories throughout the day.
3. If you are a women, doing weight training will not make you bulky; some women are afraid of this issue and thus skipping weight training. Don’t worry, this is just another myth since most women don’t have enough testosterone (male hormones) to become bulky. If you are training and your body really become bigger fast, try reduce your meal portion and weight you lift, then increase the repetition.
4. Do not over do it; while it is good to exercising on regular basis, you don’t want to over do it. When you exercise, you are damaging your muscle a bit. Your body will repair this damaged muscle over time with good rest and nutrients, but if you keep up the exercise session without giving your body a chance perform a repair, it will end up harming your body and your progress. A good healthy exercise only consist of 3-4 sessions per week.
5. Focus on low intensity cardio; some trainer will suggest to do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) which mixing high and low intensity training for fast fat burning. This is a good method but it is not recommended for most of overweight people since it will put much stress to your body and make it hard to regulate your appetite. Take the low intensity exercise such as walking and light jogging; it will not burn much calories, but it will burn more fat for fuel, put less stress in your body and thus helping you to regulate your appetite.
6. Begin your exercise by walking; if you are one of the sedentary people you may find it hard to begin with all the advanced exercise such as weight training or the HIIT; some people even have difficulties with jogging as a start since they didn’t used to any physical activities. Walking is a way to workout at steady and consistent pace; this is important when you want to burn fat effectively, and you can do it while doing other activities as well such as shopping or chatting. Get used to this exercise and try to increase the duration before you move to the more advanced exercise.
7. Fill your stomach before start your exercise; foods are required to provide energy for your muscle in order to make it work efficiently, so starting an exercise with empty stomach is a bad idea. If it is a morning exercise, eat small meal such as toast, oatmeal, or fruits one to three hours before exercise.
8. Set up a target for your exercise; when you already get used to certain type of exercise, sometimes you will forget that you have been doing the same type exercise for so long and your body already get used to it, make it less effective. Make a target, check your progress, measure your heartbeat to make sure you are in the targeted zone; if not you might want to increase the level a bit.
A healthy long term weight loss is impossible if your diet doesn’t include a good portion of exercise. Pick your diet program carefully, make sure it is also contain a good healthy exercise.
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